Boat System - 6 LION UT 100AH Balancing and Issues?

[Weebles]

12-volt system on a boat that is finishing a 3-year refit. Six Lion Energy 100A/12V batteries were purchased 3-1/2 years ago but only installed about 1-year ago. They were balance-charged prior to install. 4x200W solar was supposed to keep them charged while the refit progressed. Note schematic - each is tied to a Blue Sea bus bar with equal-length cables.

I am now finalizing the electrical system and testing and recently installed Victron SmartShunt and was getting eratic readings. So I attempted to balance-charge each battery individually using a new Victron 15A 'smart' battery charger using "Lithium" setting (14.2v) and which gives decent information allowing me to charge each until amps-in equaled zero. Charge acceptance was all over the map - batteries were way out of balance. Some took hours and around 60AH energy to charge, one took 15-minutes and barely 5AH to charge. One was dead.

QUESTIONS:

1. What am I doing wrong? I took a lot of care in assembling this system - I'd do it differently now, but this was almost 4-years ago. Different gear and price points back then.
2. Thoughts on how these batteries got so far out-of-balance (see second EXCEL graph - #2 'dead' battery removed as it skewed scale)
3. I will not re-hookup the dead battery, but are the other five batteries acceptable for a battery bank given they range from 13.55v to 14.07v resting state?
4. Lion Energy offers a lifetime warranty on their batteries - how is their tech support? Any tips?

Thanks in advance -

 

[mikefitz]

Resting voltage after a charge may not be a true indication of condition, there will also be a 'surface charge' that distorts the actual rest conditions. Carrying out a capacity test on each battery using the Smart Shunt would give a better Indication of battery state.
There is a warranty on Lion batteries, you may be able to get any faulty batteries replaced.
It's probable that the batteries were over charged over the period of non use and perhaps stored at elevated temperature.
Often the recomended charge and float volts, and absorbtion duration are too stressful where there is a daily solar charge with no load on the battery pack.
I recall a previous discussion on this forum where Lion batteries had serious reduced capacity within a short time frame, I believe the manufacturer replaced the batteries.

Mike

 

[Weebles]

Resting voltage after a charge may not be a true indication of condition, there will also be a 'surface charge' that distorts the actual rest conditions. Carrying out a capacity test on each battery using the Smart Shunt would give a better Indication of battery state.
There is a warranty on Lion batteries, you may be able to get any faulty batteries replaced.
It's probable that the batteries were over charged over the period of non use and perhaps stored at elevated temperature.
Often the recomended charge and float volts, and absorbtion duration are too stressful where there is a daily solar charge with no load on the battery pack.
I recall a previous discussion on this forum where Lion batteries had serious reduced capacity within a short time frame, I believe the manufacturer replaced the batteries.

Mike

Thanks - this is helpful. Lion will be sending a replacement for the one dead battery. They offered no insight into what caused the issue. They did note the 14.2v resting voltage seemed high.

Any recommendations for a capacity tester besides using my VIctron Shunt? WIth six batteries, would be fairly disruptive to use main shunt for testing.

Peter

 

[Eoin]

12-volt system on a boat that is finishing a 3-year refit. Six Lion Energy 100A/12V batteries were purchased 3-1/2 years ago but only installed about 1-year ago. They were balance-charged prior to install. 4x200W solar was supposed to keep them charged while the refit progressed. Note schematic - each is tied to a Blue Sea bus bar with equal-length cables.

As was previously suggested lithium ion and LiFePO4 cells don't like to be kept at full charge continuously... unlike Lead Acid batteries, which we normally keep continuously "topped up" on our boats...the chemistry is different with lithium.

A suggestion here for future consideration as you said
4x200W solar was supposed to keep them charged while the refit progressed.

So reduce your charge absorption and float voltages while your refit is in progress until your ready to commission your build and have continued loads on the batteries.

I've also used my shunt (removed it from my boat) for the purpose of capacity testing my new build.